We are at the Savi Savi Earth Lodge, a private game reserve on the southern side of the Savi River.
It's the natural boundary with the Kruger National Park.
Wild animals will move freely between both parks,
and you can never guarantee that what you actually hope to see will be there at that time.
We just presume we will get the big five, the leopard, the lion, the buffalo, the elephant and the rhinoceros,
but we have high hopes of many others as well.
While we are at the Earth Lodge, each day we'll have two game drives.
Petro, who sits out the front, is our tracker.
And Mark, the senior ranger, is our driver and guide.
We are in a modified open-top Toyota, with a maximum of six guests each time.
Right from the start is made very clear to us.
If anyone gets spooked by an animal and jumps out of the vehicle, then they are alone,
as neither Mark nor Petro will risk themselves or the safety of the rest of the group to bring them back.
This will be reinforced several times during our stay.
They are ever-watchful.
We cut through the bush when it is feasible, looking for anything or everything.
And when other vehicles in the area have spotted something, then they converse in every car.
Before we actually, suddenly, find them.
If there was mentioning, look at the muscles on his neck. Huge sets of muscles, keeping their head and the horns up.
Perhaps it's the Pudu males with their outward spiraling horns.
Or the females with the big, soft ears.
Maybe the waterbuck with the bullseye on their rear, which those behind will watch when they are hungry.
There's a lot of defences.
It's most often drawn to a place like this.
It can smell the meat, it associates the animals with the food that it attends.
In fact, there's a lot with the scared off.
It'll be a little bit more cautious though, because it doesn't want to give us position away.
Lines need to be within about ten meters of this plate to be relatively successful.
Let it even closer.
A troop of baboons slowly makes their way back to the river.
It's night falls.
Later, we'll see them playing on the roots of the sleeping quarters at a nearby camp.
Suddenly, right on the tree line in an open spat, we spot a cheetah.
It's made a kill.
So it was resting for a while before going on again, and taking no notice of us.
Then, suddenly we stop.
A dung beetle is unsuccessfully trying to push his newly made dung ball up a slope to his personal dung nest,
where he will eventually have many such balls hidden away.
Yeah, one is doing nothing.
You know which one that one is?
Female.
That's it.
A beautiful shine, but that's coloration on it, which is awesome.
The male walking around on the top, orientating himself, so he doesn't push this ball around in circles.
And he wants to push it up here.
Is that a ball of dung?
That is it, yes.
They're gonna feed off of it?
He has accumulated this ball, compacted it, started rolling it to female.
We'll see this whole ball.
She will then land on top and she will lay one egg inside.
And she's in the process of laying an egg inside, or maybe she's just finished.
How long did it take him to compact it to that size?
Strongest thing is, no.
Alright, so we're gonna go stop down here at the viewpoint,
and we'll see if we can get some hippos down here.
Are they hippo chicks?
Yeah, straight through.
So the hippos have carved this path out of the bush.
From here, cutting through, then down to the Sabi River.
Although hippos graze many kilometers inland during the night,
they will be back again at the Sabi River during the day.
To stay cool, and so minimise overheating.
A female who gives birth to a male calf will hide herself away,
until the calf is six months old, then bigger and stronger,
as the dominant male will kill off any potential later life suitors.
And they have a life expectancy of about 54 years.
A small herd of female elephants with young ample past in front of us.
You can see the memory glands of one,
which means she is still feeding her calf.
She is still feeding her calf.
She is still feeding her calf.
She is still feeding her calf.
She is still feeding her calf.
She is still feeding her calf.
She is still feeding her calf.
She is still feeding her calf.
She is still feeding her calf.
At a waterhole near the lodge, both golden and mast weaver birds
put the finishing touches to theirs.
And the southern carmine bead is just watch everything going on around them.
Petro signals that we are approaching the Cape Buffalo,
the most dangerous of all animals.
And again, we are warned about leaving the vehicle.
Okay, are these males, females?
These are all males.
They've got their solid mantle or headrests.
Are you working in the law setup?
Looks like those old wigs from the old colonial days.
That's what they have.
I think he's trying to out-stare me.
They are trying to out-stare me.
They are trying to out-stare me.
It's from laying eggs and getting onto the water.
That's the orange on his head?
Yes.
That's poison?
Yeah, it's bark.
It goes to the poison trees.
You get that bark.
That's mosquito repellent.
We've got four of the big five.
We're just like Donny.
We've got to get to the water.
So when you see a leopard,
you just need to be lucky enough to see a leopard.
And it's amazing.
You see how many other animals you've seen.
Check the stories they're use of once.
Don't take them for granted.
Don't mind.
Two male warthogs come towards us on the track.
With four warts on their faces,
whereas the females only have two.
Their tails swing to reduce the flies,
but will stiffen and stay erect when they run.
And those behind watching and waiting
will be doing exactly the same.
You will often find a herd or family of wildebeest
companion grazing with the zebras.
The zebras will eat the longer grass,
leaving the preferred shorter stuff for the wildebeest.
This leopard moves purposely through the bush, watching, waiting,
whilst the impalas spook at any sign of predators.
Waterbuck approach the water hole cautiously,
prepared to jump in and swim away into the sand danger.
Both red and yellow-billed oxpeckers busy themselves,
continually removing the ticks off the kudu
and other animals that they come across.
They are dependent upon them for their food source.
The male species of waterbuckers can into several thousand
of them with one or two Milch already fared for the four
pelicans science fiction.
This species should be kept it's next frontier to the
A male rhino has found a female and calf in his territory.
He tries to approach, but she soon demonstrates she was nothing to do with them.
They have a text and stand off.
Meanwhile, he continues to mark his territory with urine.
All the time, each and closer, what's the mother keeps her young calf will beside her.
We approach a large herd of female elephants with young spooked by first a
large male nearby demolishing a tree, but now an ostrich.
Look at them scurrying to keep up, see I want to get in here.
Watch, see that head shake from the female, bearing out the ears because of the ostrich.
They stand still for so long, before finally deciding to make a break for it.
This is a little one leaving a riot.
Are you getting anxious or nervous?
Two more behind us, just so you know.
Yeah, three more.
Must be that situation.
How old were the smallest ones, Blake?
Sure, there's various sizes. I'd say the smallest ones there, maybe about six months.
So the one like second from the left right now, probably about six months?
Yes.
And those are all either babies or females?
Yeah, babies, both sexes and females.
Also nearby, the wildebeest also decided safe for them to move on.
And the calf soon runs around with gay abandon.
Simply because he can.
Four spotted or laughing hyenas watch us silently from one side of the track.
We have previously seen them at EarthLodge when dining one evening.
This is our last game drive.
And we are tracking three lionesses known to be in the area.
We leave at 5.30 to try and find them as they had been seen the night before.
Petro checks out new tracks as the sun slowly comes up.
And then we find them, two of them about to rest for the day before hunting again at night.
The third lioness has returned to the cubs that are also in the area.
They have made a small kill, but it's not enough.
Hence another hunt tonight.
They ignore us, but are instantly alert when a vulture flies over.
They show no interest in a large group of impala within 500 metres.
And the impala are blissfully unaware of their presence.
As we start to make our way back to camp for the last time, a journey of giraffes appear.
Feeding on these spiny acacia trees on the hillside.
Their tongues expertly strip the leaves off with no damage to themselves by the spines.
This is their staple diet.
As all other animals will find the spines too much of a deterrent.
Magistically and easily, I move through the bush.
And a lasting memory will be of a young male elephant with a hole in his left ear.
As a youngster it is presumed that he got a stick or a spine in his ear, which infected, left a hole, and now is easily recognisable.
We only ever see him on his own.
As we start to make our way back to camp for the last time, a journey of giraffes appears.
As we start to make our way back to camp for the last time, a journey of giraffes appears.
As we start to make our way back to camp for the last time, a journey of giraffes appears.
It is lunch. What a magic stay this has been.
